Samsung TV / lifestyle / SPOTIFY - MUSIC AND PODCASTS
REVIEW
Spotify on Samsung TV is the music app most Samsung owners will use whether they want to or not.
Same Spotify catalogue, Samsung-specific Bixby integration, and the standard couch-mode music experience — slightly less polished than the LG webOS version, slightly better than the Roku one.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 8, 2026 · 2 MIN READ
Spotify - Music and Podcasts
SPOTIFY AB
OUR SCORE
7.6
SAMSUNG TV
★ —
PRICE
Free
Spotify on a Samsung TV is the Spotify catalogue in a Samsung-platform-specific shell. The catalogue is the catalogue. The recommendation algorithm is the recommendation algorithm. The Spotify Connect protocol is the same protocol. What’s slightly different is the Samsung TV’s display hardware (QLED panels are good but lack the true-black depth of LG OLEDs for album-art aesthetics), the Bixby voice integration (workable, not Apple-Siri-tier), and the update cadence (slower than LG webOS for new feature rollouts).
For Samsung TV owners with a Spotify Premium subscription, this is a fine install. The Connect handoff from phone is the killer feature, the same as on every other TV platform. The casual-listening use case in a TV-adjacent space is the right shape for what the app is. Couch-mode music plays. The TV speakers carry the audio. The phone becomes a remote.
What this isn’t is a meaningful upgrade over the LG webOS or Apple TV equivalents. Spotify on Samsung Tizen is a solid B-grade implementation of a product that Spotify maintains across many platforms with similar quality. The recommendation, in editorial terms, is “use it if it’s the TV you have” rather than “buy a Samsung TV for this app”. The phone app is, for serious music listening, still the right primary surface. The TV app is the casual extension.
Spotify on Samsung TV is Spotify everywhere else — the catalogue is the catalogue, the platform barely matters.
FEATURES
Spotify on Samsung Tizen is the smart-TV-native client of Spotify, with the full catalogue (100M+ tracks, podcasts, audiobooks where supported) and the standard subscription tiers ($11.99/month US Individual, $19.99/month Family, $5.99/month Student).
Tizen-specific features: Bixby voice search, Samsung TV Plus integration where Spotify's curated playlists surface in the free-channel grid, full-screen Now Playing display optimized for Samsung's QLED panels, and Spotify Connect from phone to TV with Samsung-specific handoff polish.
Catalogue, recommendation algorithm, and Spotify Connect are identical to the iOS, Android, and other-TV-platform Spotify experiences.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Spotify Connect from phone to Samsung TV works smoothly. Walking-in-with-music handoff is responsive, the cross-device control loop holds, and the Samsung TV speakers (or attached audio) take over playback without dropouts.
The full-screen Now Playing display on Samsung's QLED panels renders album art well — not as visually impactful as on LG OLEDs (the QLED's inability to produce true black limits the aesthetic of dark album art) but appreciably better than on lower-tier TV displays.
Bixby voice search handles direct queries ("Bixby, play Pink Floyd") well and reasonably for genre/mood queries.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The Tizen app's update cadence has lagged the LG webOS Spotify app for new feature rollouts. Recent Spotify additions (the AI DJ improvements, the audiobook tier expansion) reach Samsung's app weeks-to-months after they hit other TV platforms.
Free-tier limitations apply on TV the same way they apply on phone — ad density is heavy, on-demand-specific-track requests are restricted, the experience is meaningfully worse than Premium.
Podcast playback works but discovery is awkward at TV viewing distances; most users default to the phone for podcast browsing and use the TV only for active playback.
CONCLUSION
See the LG webOS Spotify review for the broader editorial take on TV-mode music listening. On Samsung TV specifically, the experience is slightly less polished than LG's (QLED versus OLED for the visual element, occasional update-cadence lag) but the catalogue, the Connect handoff, and the basic functionality are all the same. For Samsung TV owners with Spotify Premium, this is the right install. For free-tier listeners, expect the same friction here as anywhere else.